Popular Mechanics Goes to the Sci-Tech Oscars

Every year, the men and women who make movies possible are only briefly recognized, relegated to a two-minute capsule presentation during the Oscars telecast. You know the part of the show: The host mentions the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony that was held two weeks before, then the broadcast cuts to a young actress shaking hands with older men who look like they'd enjoy doing your taxes. These older men (and a few women!) are geniuses, and they deserve more. This year, in honor of the technology, equipment, lens creators, and software developers behind the people who are behind the people who make our favorite movies, we decided to focus on them. On their achievements. We're also co-hosting a cocktail party for them with the Academy this year. We think it'll be fun. We know it's deserved.

This story appears in the February 2016 issue of Popular Mechanics

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The Awards

Technical Achievement Award

Given for clever technological innovations that have had an impact and contributed to the progress of the film industry. Winner receives a framed certificate.

Previous Winner: Peter Braun, MAT-Towercam Twin Peek

Scientific and Engineering Award

Reserved for pieces of technology that have permeated the industry, have possibly spawned imitators, and were very difficult to create. Winner receives a 24-karat gold-plated plaque.

Reserved for only the most groundbreaking, important, and widely adopted technological innovations, this award is so difficult to receive it goes years without being given. Winner receives an Oscar. A real one.

Previous winner: Dr. Larry Hornbeck, digital micromirror technology

A Few Words From a Winner

Dolby Laboratories' David W. Gray created stereo-optical soundtracks and added digital sound to film. He won the Gordon E. Sawyer Award in 2015.

Popular Mechanics: This was a big deal.

David W. Gray: Absolutely huge. It's not given very often. I believe I was the twenty-fifth recipient. It's the only way for an engineer like me to possibly get an Oscar.

PM: Did you show up in the Sci-Tech clip on the Academy Awards?

DWG: I did. My twelve-minute speech got boiled down to a shot of me being handed the Oscar and saying, "Wow!" I got my one word on national television. It was great.

PM: Twelve minutes is pretty long for an Oscar speech.

DWG: There has never been a time constraint on the Gordon Sawyer or the Bonner awards. That's one of the benefits of Sci-Tech. You don't get played off.

PM: What do you think we should be paying more attention to in movies?

DWG: I don't think the general public really understands the breadth of what goes into making a motion picture and how technical that process really is. People see visual effects, but I don't know that anybody thinks about the fact that some guy wrote an algorithm that can do that.

PM: Now that you have an Oscar, do you make people refer to you as "Academy Award winner David Gray"?

DWG: No, but my friends tease the shit out of me. They call me "Mr. I Have an Oscar and You Don't."

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How it Works: The Sci-Tech Awards Selection Process

1. The Submissions

After a call is put out each spring, inventors, technicians, scientists, companies, and anyone else who feels they're deserving have until July to file an application.

2. The First Cut

An executive committee goes through the submissions, looking for innovations that have changed filmmaking. The finalists are then assigned to surrogate committees for investigation.

3. The Investigation

The Academy issues a press release announcing the finalists and inviting others to submit similar technologies. Over three months, the committee investigates every aspect of the nominated technology.

4. The Report

The surrogate committee passes reports on worthy nominees to the executive committee. The executive committee makes another cut and passes the submissions on to the Board of Governors.

5. The Board of Governors

The Board of Governors is made up of fifty-one Academy members, including actors, writers, producers, and costume designers. Those members vote on who should actually receive awards.

6. The Winners

All applicants, whether they won or not, are told via letter if they were selected and why or why not. The Academy issues a press release in early January announcing the winners.

A Few of This Year's Nominees

WETA Digital's FACETS directable facial motion capture

FACETS technology turns actors' faces into computer- generated creatures in real time. The system uses a headset that looks like a pop star's wireless microphone to place a camera directly in front of actors' faces, allowing a computer to capture their expressions close up and translate them into a CGI face. Old technology required facial and body acting to be done separately. The technology also lets actors see their movements transformed into rough estimations of their characters in real time, helping them to adjust to best fit the animation.

Recent Credits: Avatar, The Hobbit

Aircover Inflatables inflatable Airwall

Before the Airwall, large special-effects screens were laboriously constructed of lumber and metal, then torn down and thrown away after filming. The Airwall avoids that waste of time, materials, and effort. The reusable inflatable screens can be attached to shipping containers in different combinations to create nearly any size and shape.

Odin makes all the special effects you never notice: background waterfalls, burning cities, rooms full of gold coins. The computer platform networks multiple machines to create massive effects, allowing small details to be simulated in a matter of hours rather than days.

Recent Credits: Prometheus, Godzilla

Clairmont camera Squishy lens and image shaker

Often used in dream sequences, Squishy (pictured) is a soft optical element that creates an image that's clear in the center and foggy on the periphery. The Image Shaker is two pieces of glass with liquid in between that pan and tilt on separate axes using two separate motors. This makes you think there's an earthquake when nothing in the scene is actually moving.